Since mini notebook computers have no DVD or CDROM drive it can be a little challenging to change or reinstall the operating system. USB DVD/CDROMs are readily available and it is also possible to use a bootable USB flash drive, which I like to use for maintenance. Also the
Asus netbook comes with a partitioned hard drive with two 80GB logical drives. Many users perfer the single 160GB drive, but I suggest to my students that they partition their drives. The reason for partitioning is to have a place to store important files and operating system backups. It is only a matter of time that Windows will either get corrupted, infected, or just stop working. By have a readily available backup outside the operating system drive you can easily restore your computer to a known good operating system that is configured with the latest security updates and programs that you need. Otherwise you have to use the factory restore feature and lose not only your important data (if you didn’t backup and who does) and also you have to reinstall all the security upadtes and programs that you use. My backups and restores take no more than 10 minutes using Norton Ghost. I have a youtube video that goes into detail about partition drives and doing complete image backups using Ghost.
YouTube video partitioning hard drive: Partitioning Hard Drive
YouTube video Ghost backup: Backing up using Norton Ghost
concerns seem to be battery life. The 6 cell batteries provide form 6-10 hours and the 3 cell batteries 2-4 hours depending on your activities. Travelers perfer the the 6 cell. The newer 10 inch screens seem to be adaquate for most. The keyboard is another area of focus. Touch typists seem to favor the Samsung, Asus, and Toshiba in that order. The over quality and feel seem to favor Samsung, Asus, and Toshiba. The reviews at Amazon seem to favor the Asus 1000HE even over some of Asus more recent notebooks. Users are saying the 1000HE has longer battery life, faster processor, and bluetooth that some of the newer models lack. A must upgrade for less than $30 is the RAM (see: Notebook Memory Upgrade)
that allow easy removal and replacement with one 2GB RAM chip that is available for less than $30 on Amazon, Newegg, or TigerDirect. Also you can upgrade the hard drive to a 7200RMP 320GB or 500GB for less than $100. These upgrades take less that 10 minutes. I have a youtube video discusses upgrading notebooks RAM and hard drives which is very similiar to netbooks.